After someone had shouted the word mage a large ball of fire started appearing in front of the figure that had walked to the front of the enemy. It grew until it had a diameter of about 40 cm, or what Alexander would have called a large pizza when he was still Ryan.
The ball of fire was then sent towards them, more specifically it came towards the trench Alexander was inside. Luckily for him the ball started too curve slightly to his right. The fact that the ball had been sent as a curve ball was quite the surprise, but made sense since it would ensure that if they started to run it would hit towards an area they might flee.
When the ball of fire hit it exploded outwards, consuming those closest to the point of impact and sending the rest flying. The ball hadn't curved enough for Alexander to be outside the blast zone as he was sent flying. The temperature brought by the fire was enough to ignite the cartridges they had left. Leading to the sound of the fire being consumed by the sound of gunpowder going off.
This sound of gunpowder was soon replaced by the screams of those hit by either the fire or the bullets that went flying from pockets. Alexander himself screamed as he felt his entire skin burning. The pain was excruciating. It was so much pain that he couldn't even tell if some of the stabs of pain he felt were from extra heat or bullets.
It didn't take long for him to land after having been sent flying. The pain was unbearable and he wasn't sure if he could move any part of his body. So when the darkness came he wasn't sure if he was glad or not. He hadn't wanted to die again so quickly. He was only around 14 at this point. Just over half the age he was when he previously died. But to escape the pain was a relief.
The next thing Alexander knew was that he was in a bed. Looking around himself he could only see grey stone walls and a night stand beside the bed. Studying his own body there appeared to be no signs of any wounds. He tried to move his body and managed to rise from the bed without any issue and without pain. He walked to the door and tried to open it. The door swung inwards without making a sound.
Peeking his head out the doorway he could see that he was in a short corridor. The grey stone from the room he was in continued in the corridor. Straight across from him was another wooden door. He could also make out another two sets of doors to either side. On the left hand side of his room the corridor continued just past one of the sets of doors before ending. To his right the corridor seemed to join another corridor in a T-junction.
Not sure where this corridor was, or if anyone would check up on him, Alexander decided to return to the bed and wait. After he had waited for what felt like half an hour he gave up. There had been no sounds of anyone else. Standing back up he made his way back to the door and exited into the corridor.
Once in the corridor he decided to first check the door right across from his room. He approached the door and tried listening through it. He couldn't hear anything. Since there wasn't any sound coming from inside the room he tried opening the door. As was with his own door, this one didn't make any sound when it opened either. Inside it seemed to be a room exactly like the one he had awoken in. Just one bed and a night stand. On the bed itself was some crumpled bed sheets with red-brown stains.
Seeing that there were no one in the room, though it seemed like someone had been at one point, Alexander exited and returned to the corridor. He assumed that he would find the same kind of room behind the remaining four doors in the corridor but wanted to make sure. He listened at each one before entering them. They were exactly like he had thought. Empty but with a bed and night stand. And all of them had crumpled bedsheets with the same red-brown stains.
The presence of crumpled bedsheets with red-brown stains led him to believe that this might be a hospital of some sort. After all how often do you find five rooms, six if counting his own, with bedsheets stained with what was most likely dried blood. Since there was nothing left too look at in this corridor he made his way to the T-junction into the other corridor.
Looking left and right into the next corridor it went on for quite some distance to the right whilst on the left it terminated almost immediately with another wooden door. As there was only one door to the left Alexander thought it would be quickest to check that one first before proceeding to the right.
Again he listened at the door first. Hearing nothing again he tried to open it. This time the door didn't want to move at all. Trying with some extra force he pushed on the door again. No movement. Not being able to open the door he turned around and proceeded down the corridor quickly moving past the corridor to his room.
The corridor seemed to go on and on. After he had walked for a minute the grey stone walls started changing into wooden walls. Another minute and the walls had painting hanging from them. He stopped at the first painting he saw.
Looking at the painting it appeared to be a field or a valley. More than that was impossible to make out. Either something suddenly went wrong with his eyes or the painting had been painted to appear blurry. He studied it for a while to see if he could make anything out besides the blur. Nothing came of it, though he thought he saw some movement, but given the time he had stared at the painting it was most likely his mind playing a trick. He continued down the corridor instead.
Alexander thought he had walked for nearly ten minutes when he could make a pair of doors. Finally he had reached the end of this endless corridor. Once he reached the ornate double doors he turned around to see if he could see the other end from this side. Of course he didn't see the end as it appeared to just go on and on. Turning back to the doors he tried to push them open.
The doors opened without sound. What they opened up to shocked him. Behind the doors was the entrance of the physics building back at University of Glasgow. He had to turn around again to make sure that the corridor was still there. It was.
He walked slowly into the entrance, looking around there didn't appear to be anyone there. He stopped just inside to listen. Again there was no sound. He turned to his right and proceeded to walk towards a pair of glass doors. The doors opened without issue has he pushed on them. This action was something he had done so many times before that he without any thoughts continued walking into the corridor behind the glass doors. He didn't stop until he reached the door leading into a lecture theatre.
Pushing the door open what he saw wasn't the expected lecture theatre but a huge room with rows upon rows of books.
This had to be a dream, that was the only thing that made sense at this point. But did that mean he survived the battle? Or was this a kind of dream that appeared for those that were in the progress of reincarnating?
Alexander had imagined that if he realised he was in a dream he would get to control it. But trying to fly did nothing, nor was he teleported anywhere. Though he was still sure it had to be some form of dream.
Since there appeared to be an extreme amount of books in the room he had just walked into he might as well see if they could be opened. He walked up to the nearest bookshelf and looked at the spine of the different books. Nothing appeared to be written on any of them. Nor were there any kind of indication as to why they were on this specific shelf.
He pulled out one of the books and opened it. Inside he could only see lines of blur. He leafed through the book quickly, only seeing more blurry lines. He gave up on the first book he had pulled out and put it back. Moving slightly down the shelf he pulled out another book. This one also contained nothing but blurry lines. He dropped the book to the floor this time and decided to move to another shelf.
At the second shelf the books appeared in much the same manner. Nothing on their spine nor their front. Opening them revealed the same blurry lines as before. He pulled out more and more books, moving to different shelves and doing the same. Each and every book he opened was the same. Lines upon lines of blur.
Having pulled out what must have been a few hundred books Alexander decided to give up on finding anything readable. He sighed and sat down on the ground leaning against the last shelf he had been pulling books from. That is when he noticed a line of light coming through a door to the side of the library.
He slowly walked to the door with the line of light and tried peering through the crack. The light was blinding making it impossible to make anything out. He shielded his and slowly opened the door fully. Walking into the room the light dim slightly and he could move his hand away from his eyes.
The room wasn't anything special, it had large table in the middle surrounded by chairs, almost like a conference room. The light turned out to be coming from a window. The first window he had seen so far. Which reminded him that there hadn't been any windows even in the Physics building which he knew had windows but he hadn't reacted to it back then. He made his way slowly to the window so that he could look at what was outside this bizarre building.
What he saw first appeared as a blurry field or valley, similar to the picture back in the second corridor. However it slowly resolved this time into what appeared to be a birds eye view of the battlefield he was sure he had been at before dreaming. He could make out the sight of bodies everywhere. Dots appeared to be moving, thinking about it he realised it had to be people but seen exactly overhead. One of the dots appeared to stop moving and bent down over one of the bodies. Proving his thoughts about it being a person. The person seemed to search the body before standing back up and moving again.
This action was repeated by many of the other people walking the battlefield. Most of them searched the bodies for a short time before moving on. However at some of the bodies the stopped for longer before two more people with what seemed to be a stretcher ran over. They loaded the body and carried them towards where he imagined Fort Exor would be, though it was outside his field of view from the window.
The light that shone in through the window started to disappear. The source of this light seemed to also be outside his field of view. Once the light disappeared fully Alexander turned away from the window.
Just after he had turned around flames consumed his vision. He closed his eyes to the brightness of the flames. Pain came from everywhere. It felt like someone was torching him alive. He tried to scream, but no sound came from his mouth. Where had these flames come from?
Slowly the pain started to dull. It was still there but much fainter. Almost like a light headache. He dared to open his eyes. Whiteness. That was everything he could see.
Then the sound came back.